According to the Student Health and Counseling Services Department at UC Davis in Davis, CA, environmental wellness “inspires us to live a lifestyle that is respectful of our surroundings… encourages us to live in harmony with the earth by taking action to protect it… promotes interaction with nature and your personal environment.”

How does Environmental Wellness apply to eating a healthful diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and overall quality of life?

The types of foods that are so widely available in the current food environment can be a cause to the rise in obesity rates. The human brain developed at a time when the food supply was very sparse. Throughout time, humans became programmed to respond to calorie-dense food and as a result food became a source of reward and pleasure. According to Ashley Gearhardt, who is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, “…if we found a berry bush in the wilderness, we’d remember how tasty the berries are and be motivated to go back and get them.”

The brain’s wiring is strong to make sure a person consumes enough calories. In contrast to today, early ancestors did not need a defense for eating too many calories and, as a result, the “signals and brakes” for the amount of calories consumed by humans today are very weak. In present day, food is very available in the environment and the most advertised foods are engineered to be more rewarding than the foods the late ancestors consumed. These same predecessors gathered fresh berries in the environment, whereas humans today cannot walk through a shopping mall or watch television without being tempted to consume foods and drinks, such as 1,000–calorie Haagen-Dazs Banana Split with all of the ‘fixings,’ “Big Gulp” sodas, “Big Bite” hot dogs, and deep dish greasy pizzas. The probable cause for ineffective weight management is too much consumption of these widely available and advertised foods and drinks in the current food environment. Humans today do not struggle with maintaining a healthy weight because they are eating too many apples, broccoli, beans, wild salmon or brown rice; it is the easily accessible unhealthy food in the present environment that causes weight gain. The current population is more likely to respond to food advertisements than non-food advertisements.

The food environment has “flip-flopped”: reacting to food cues within the environment helped early ancestors survive in the past. However, these cues in the environment today are placing people at an increased risk for health disorders resulting in a shorter life expectancy. Difficulty eating a healthful diet and maintaining a healthy weight may not be the individual’s fault. Oftentimes it is a “mismatch” between the individual’s biology and the environment.

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About rrluthi

Certified fitness expert with a passion for educating and empowering the 55 and better "chronologically-enriched" population about the benefits of adopting and maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle, preventing injury, and feeling good. Proven strengths applying cutting-edge fitness/wellness concepts and research through roles as a health coach, fitness trainer, and group exercise instructor—in addition to promoting these concepts in a more systematic way through blogging and social media, community outreach, public speaking, corporate wellness program facilitation and senior fitness program support.